3. Allophones is the variations from a norm (the
phoneme)
In general allophones is conditioned variants of
a phoneme;
generated by phonological conditioning
(= a matter of language-specific 'rules of pronunciation')
4. PHONEMES are realised as
ALLOPHONES:
PHONEMES
ALLOPHONES
Significant
non-significant
Unpredictable
Predictable
contrastive distribution
complementary distribution
broad transcription /.../
narrow transcription [...]
5. A phoneme's allophones are all alternative
pronunciations for a phoneme, the specific
allophone selected in a given situation is often
predictable.
“Any sound or subclass of sounds which is in
complementary distribution with another so that
the two together constitute a single phoneme is
called allpophone of that phoneme. A phoneme is,
therefore, a class of allophones.”
(Gleason 1955:263)
6. The difference comes from different phonetic
1. Phoneme /p/, /t/, /k/
In IPA transcription, adding a superscript [ h ] after the symbol in
question it’s called aspiration.
ASPIRATED are pronounce at the initial position.
Example
:
Pill [phιl]
Till [thιl]
Kill [khιl]
UNASPIRATED are pronounce at the final or the middle
position.
Example
:
Cup
[k˄p]
Rabbit
[ræbιt]
Peacock
[‘pi:kɒk]
7. 2. Phoneme /l/
Clear [ l ] =tipis=
The tip of the tongue is touching the teeth ridge behind
the upper teeth, and the other part of the tongue is raised
into the front of the mouth palate.
Example : lip, lizard
Dark [ l ] =tebal=
the tip of the tongue is at the back of the front teeth, but
the part of the tongue which is raised into mouth palate, is
further 1 inch behind.
Example : towel, swallow
8. 3. Phoneme /s/ plural
a. [z] e.g. dogs [dogz]
b. [iz] e.g. sandwiches, classes
Usually, the different ALLOPHONES of the same PHONEME
are all similar to each other - they form a FAMILY of sounds.
But we mustn't fall into the trap of thinking that ALLOPHONIC
difference is small while PHONEMIC difference is large.
There is actually no real difference between these differences!
We can see this by the fact that the same difference can be
allophonic in one language, and phonemic in another.
9. There are many other allophonic processes in
English, like lack of plosion, nasal plosion, partial
devoicing of sonorants, complete devoicing of
sonorants, partial devoicing of obstruents,
lengthening and shortening vowels, and retraction.
# Aspiration
strong explosion of breath. In English a voiceless
plosive that is p, t or k is aspirated whenever it stands as
the only consonant at the beginning of the stressed
syllable or of the first, stressed or unstressed, lable in a
word.
10. # Nasal plosion
In English a plosive (/p, t, k, b, d, ɡ/) has nasal plosion
when it is followed by a nasal, inside a word
or across word
boundary.
# Partial devoicing of sonorants
In English sonorants (/j, w, l, r, m, n, ŋ/) are partially
devoiced when they follow a voiceless sound within the same
syllable.
# Complete devoicing of sonorants
In English a sonorant is completely devoiced when it
follows an aspirated plosive (/p, t, k/).
11. # Partial devoicing of obstruents
In English, a voiced obstruent is partially devoiced next to a
pause or next to a voiceless sound, inside a word or across
its boundary.
# Lengthening and shortening vowels
English contains no pairs of words that are identical except
that where one contains a short version of a vowel, the
other contains the longer version of the same vowel.
# Retraction
in English /t, d, n, l/ are retracted before /r/.
12. The difference can be felt by holding the
hand in front of the lips. For a Mandarin
speaker, to whom /t/ and [tʰ] are separate
phonemes, the English distinction is much
more obvious than it is to the English
speaker who has learned since childhood to
ignore it.
